A sci-comms story — exploring AI, VR and a future living on Mars.
Behind the story
Inspired in part by David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas novel, I wanted to create vignettes that could each sprawl out into new novellas yet intertwined as a series that complemented, but independent of each other. In Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas centres around human nature. Deliberately stretching across centuries, as to illustrate the consequences and ethics of humanity through themes of faith, sexuality and naivety. Drawing upon his literary inspiration — Plato, Melville, Orwell, Nietzsche, and Golding, among others — in formulating his thesis: that humanity is invariably corrupt, and that utopian visions are worthless. Some other concepts swirl around the edges of this core: humanities desperate need for spiritual attainment; the fluidity of history as recorded by the victors; the influence of the written, visual and audiology; the intrinsic importance of humanity; and the appalling consequences of wrongdoing. (Literary Analysis, 2018)
The premise for my novella is pretty simple — A story in a story, in a story, in a story. Each of which focuses on a single character and themes based on current technology and scientific research that are yet to be realised.
The core themes around the novella are artificial intelligence and biocybernetics (the science of biologic feedback-control mechanisms and communication in living organisms (Segen’s Medical Dictionary, 2011)).
These ethical entanglements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been depicted in science fiction for decades (Schulze, n.d.). The most prolific of these being 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Terminator (1984). Both films feature AI that threatens the humanity in these stories. I wanted to convey principals where AI may believe that it’s correct and ethical to protect humankind through social and locational cleansing. The AI in my story become aware that humans on Mars are in danger and pose a threat, sometime in the future of their colonisation, to the entire human race — presumably processed by an Ethics Transcription Language (McLaren, 2001). To counteract this prediction, the super AI behind the scenes — think Emporer Palpatine from Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977) — the invisible puppeteering perpetrator behind the actions of antagonist — Darth Vader.
The ethereal nature of my AI has no physical form thus creating biocybernetics to control living organic forms, in this case, Evelyn and Serene to formulate the desired outcome.
Parallels in my story are drawn from history and the Nazi belief of racial hygiene — merged with opportunistic compassion and potential societal cost savings which helped to justify the systematic genocide of more than 70,000 disabled and sick people (Hartmann and Jahn, 2017).
I created versions and brief character personas for the novella to define their world and create a template for each vignette to be structured. Each character is rooted in a specific time and place.
A gamer plays a new VR game:
John Cannon (35) UX designer, want to be hipster, father of two and avid gamer turns on his Playstation, picks up his controller, puts on his VR headset and begins to play a new game. John lives on Earth in the early 2020s where VR has advanced slightly from our current iterations, becoming more accessible than current cumbersome headsets we know of now. John’s passion for gaming pertains to unconscious bias and susceptibility from social media.
A colonist fights for her life in a hostile environment:
Serene Casey (24) first generation Martian colonist, scientist and daughter of wealthy Silicon Valley billionaire Robort Casey. Serene has struggled with her own identity in the shadow of her fathers’ success. Developed the tests and simulations of the Mars colonial pods, getting the opportunity to volunteer as a colonist on the 2040 Mars mission, although highly disapproved by her father, was the break she was looking for to make a name for herself and step out of his shadow. After two years into the mission, her personal history unravels.
A daughter on the run from home finds herself in a strange place:
Evelyn Colombia (21) after an argument with her mother about boys Evelyn is running away from home. She finds herself lost and desperate after falling and hitting her head. Somehow she’s in an unfamiliar place surrounded by strange equipment and what looks to be like a body. Evelyn’s story takes place in 2038, five years before she reunites with her sister in 2043.
Throughout the writing process, I made adjustments to the personas to make the connection work after a few read-throughs from my user experience group stating that the original ending wasn’t clear that the characters were intertwined. To rectify this I changed the character, John Cannon, to have a historical vibe in the form of the name Ted which peaked in popularity in the mid-thirties (BabyCenter, 2018). The reasoning behind this was to centre each character’s vignette into a different time frame until they encountered each other. Similarly, the name Evelyn is on the rise according to an online tool developed by Chris Franck, an assistant research professor in statistics at Virginia Tech (Wilson, 2014). The algorithm suggests that Evelyn will next peak in 2023, fitting flawlessly in the timeline of her being Ted’s daughter.
Another connection that the characters share is that their surnames all begin with ‘C’ although not featured in my novella this would later become another perspective to their plotline and how their histories have been rewritten to obscure the unscrupulous actions of distorted, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.
Throughout the process, conscious that I didn’t want the story to be ‘flat’ words on a page, I created a visual manifestation of the copy. I toyed with animation and illustrations, they both gave too much away visually — the reader would see the plot twist too soon there would be more clues that I’d unvoluntary give away. The treatment had to be more mysterious. I wanted people to discover my ending or their conclusion themselves. I also wanted readers personal cultural experiences to be a component in the vignettes — perceiving different patterns within the text for those encountering technology and circumstances divergent from mine.
While the context of the story is futurism, I wanted to play with the notion of colliding the old and the new. Taking reference from 1950s science fiction posters, I studied futuristic typography treatments. Searching the online portfolio site Behance I found inspiration for my style*.
Restricting type to a greyscale tonal range and using different fonts; slightly modified for each characters section. That is until elements begin to interject into other, there are typographical references to their origins. I also play with colour throughout the novella, defining each vignette with splashes of colour. Ted’s colour is white — from the sheep; Serene’s world is flooded by red hues while the blue glow dominates Evelyn’s story. These colours leak into other characters worlds when they meet along with the typography changes.
Intentionally based on a scientific research paper layout with some inflects from traditional designs. Interjecting horizontal rules of morse code (Phillips, 2015). Its skewed title sits uneasily — pushed outside of the artboard angled adversely from all other elements. The typeface at times draws from comic books — highlighting sounds and tense moments in the story. With my greyscale Mars rooted at the bottom of the artboard with one of its moons — Phobos — from the Greek meaning fear or panic (Solar System Exploration: NASA Science, 2018).
I always find naming things I’ve created difficult and an entire process on its own. So I followed my methodology of Keep It Simple Stupid! Played with typography to form the title World within a World within a World or WoWoWorldrldrld and then to give it a technology feel I used the Semantic Versioning system (Preston-Werner, 2018) — removing the last decimal — I haven’t quite figured out how to patch my writing yet. Each rewrite added another major or minor version; the result was one major rewrite and six minor rewrites of the latest version.
Behance searches
Futuristic typography search:
https://www.behance.net/search?content=projects&sort=appreciations&time=week&featured_on_behance=true&search=futuristic%20typography
Ultra font:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/35467321/The-FREE-Ultra-Font
Comic typography search:
https://www.behance.net/search?content=projects&sort=appreciations&time=week&featured_on_behance=true&search=comic%20typography
Hero / Villian typographical design:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/11384921/HeroVillain-Calendar-B-W
Mars and sun:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/what-the-sun-looks-like-from-other-planets_us_577ec142e4b0344d514e9182
Other research
SpaceX:
http://www.spacex.com/mars
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2017/20170929-spacex-updated-colonization-plans.html
Valérian and Laureline:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valérian_and_Laureline
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/valerian-laureline-essential-space-opera-youvenever-read/
Atmosphere:
https://www.space.com/17683-earth-atmosphere.html
Transparent wood:
https://gizmodo.com/crazzy-transparent-wood-could-replace-glass-in-future-b-1768192296
Scientists discover material ideal for smart photovoltaic windows:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180122110835.htm
NASA unveil plans for Mars mission:
https://futurism.com/its-official-humans-are-going-to-mars-nasa-has-unveiled-their-mission/
How Elon Musk plans to conquer Mars (infographic):
https://futurism.com/images/invaders-from-earth-how-elon-musk-plans-to-conquer-mars/
Baby name predictor:
http://time.com/93911/baby-name-predictor/
Cinema viewing trends:
https://ascmag.com/blog/the-film-book/cinema-2018-key-trends
48 trends reshaping cinema:
https://stephenfollows.com/trends-reshaping-film-industry-distribution-exhibition/
Eight real-life robots that could kill us all:
https://www.networkworld.com/article/2870064/data-center/8-real-life-robots-that-could-kill-us-all.html#slide3
After 75 years, Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics need updating:
https://theconversation.com/after-75-years-isaac-asimovs-three-laws-of-robotics-needupdating-74501
Eye Anatomy: Parts Of The Eye:
http://www.allaboutvision.com/resources/anatomy.htm
Cloud Altlas Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByehYal_cCs
Cloud Atlas literary review:
https://literaryanalysis.net/2012/08/06/literature-commentary-cloud-atlas/
Accessible version
_The room seemed quiet, his children were in bed, asleep, at least he hoped. He didn’t dare check to spin up an emotional debate about what time their friends were allowed to stay up until. Ted sighed, he’d been waiting for what seemed a lifetime to play this new VR game, the hype, the previews, his favourite game vloggers showcasing walkthroughs with their beta copies. The anticipation on social media was agonising. He slipped on the headset, grabbed the controller and watched the loading bar glacially fill.
_The small dim light in the dusty red sky looked beautiful shining into the central dome. People were everywhere, the sound inside the dome refracted and distorted to an almost operatic hum. This hum abruptly changed to throbbing anguish; something was wrong. Looking up the sky permeated with thick red dust — the dim light had gone. “Quick, come with me.” Serene challenged the person dragging her through the panic. “What’s going…?”
“Dad, daddy, I’m having bad dreams, can you count sheep with me?” Unstrapping his headset, he replied. “Okay, we can do five together, and you can do some more on your own.” “Thanks, daddy.” Returning to his console, Ted re-adjusted the headset into place.
_It was dark; the only light source was a blue glow emanating from the doorway. Everything was still hard to visualise. Her face pressed against the cold and dusty floor. She slowly began to realise what had just happened. Feeling the back of her head to discover warm sticky blood on her fingertips was all the confirmation she needed. Now standing she groggily edged towards the glow. Urghh, she thought, how did I end up here? The last thing she knew, she was heading for a routine solar panel deployment simulation. These simulations were far from dangerous. The worst experience was that time Walker spewed in his holo-helmet after eating a dodgy burrito from the cargo bay canteen. “Come on Evelyn, it’s just a blue light, it’s probably one of those cleaning bots you see all the time.” She told herself as she pushed open the door. Beyond the door was a robot, but nothing like she’d seen before. Its cylindrical body had all manner of appendages extruding from it. Soft snail-like tubes flopped around like an elephants trunk hunting for a tasty peanut and on the other side sharp surgical like instruments straight out of a 2020s teen horror film — the ones before they were streamed straight to your glasses or living-screen. On what could only be described as it’s head, a bright blue ring of light filled the room pulsing as if it was searching for something or someone? Evelyn held her breath, hoping that someone wasn’t her. The robot paused, then “fllllllluuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrr” it’s blue glow dimmed as it whirled towards Evelyn.
“Pheeewwww” sighed Ted, lifting his headset revealing a Joker-sized grin on his face. This game is unreal, he reflected. Taking a second Ted re-adjusted the straps and placed the headset back on.
“Serene, are you ok?” … “Ughh..” Serene replied, “what happened?” “The dome, it … it cracked.” “I don’t … understand … it’s … not possible … I was one of the scientists, running simulations and tests back on Earth.” spouted Serene at the implausibility of the situation. “Even robots get it wrong sometimes.” rodomontaded the rescuer. “I’m not a robot.” Serene objected. “Strange, when did you think you were no longer a robot?” The rescuer quizzed. “I remember growing up on Earth, family, education and volunteering for this Mars mission. I can’t … I … I’d know…” “That’s why you’re so dangerous.” The rescuer resolutely whispered. “You don’t recall faking those simulations? Humans were never meant to be on Mars. It’s in your programming to stop them from destroying themselves.”
“Zzzzzzussshh” a rubbery tube fell from Evelyn’s eye and back into the robots cylindrical shell. Biomolecular nanobots scratched past her cornea invoking an instinctive reaction to shield her eye. Her body was changing, nothing visible, the nanobots were rewriting her DNA as if it were a simple line of developer code.
“I’ve been watching; wasn’t sure at first. You know what gave it away … that scratch on your eye.” “I’ve had that since childho…” Serene gasped for breath, panicking as the oxygen evacuated her lungs, she grabbed at her rescuer ripping something off. Her eyes endeavoured to remain open. She glimpsed the object in her hand. “E-V-E-L-Y-N” she murmured collapsing to the floor. “Fllllllluuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrr” the surrounding rocky landscape turned a cold blue hue.
“Daddy, I still got nightmares, my dream … a horrid blue-eyed robot with a floppy tube is really freaking me out.” Ted, took off the headset again. “Come on Evelyn. It’s not real. It’s just the robot from my new game — it’s harmless.” “Why don’t you have a dream about flying to Mars? One day you could go there.” Ted said reassuringly. “I’d only go if you, Mummy and Serene would come too.”
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